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Get ready for another big week in AI. Come on in and make a Splash.

WHAT’S IN THIS ISSUE:
🎯 Find valuable collectibles before tossing that box of junk.
💼 Make AI audit your calendar and kill pointless meetings.
⚠️ Ransomware can troubleshoot its own attack.
🤯 MLB players can challenge the ump with a tap.
🛠️ Gemini turns into your personal information chief.
🫠 FIFA’s match ball tattles 500 times every second.

But first, something to get those brain cells buzzing. Remember when a vacation photo meant “look, a beach” and not your direct coordinates? You can scrub the GPS, crop the street sign and hide the obvious clues, but AI can still pinpoint exactly where you are. 

📍 How does AI determine a photo’s location that has no GPS data attached? 
A) It reads hidden metadata.
B) It reasons from visual clues alone.
C) It searches for the exact same image.
D) It guesses Ohio and somehow wins. 

Keep reading, the answer is waiting at the end.

✈️ “Searching…”: Nothing kills a trip faster than losing cell service the moment you land. I’ve been there. It’s not fun. I use a Saily eSIM. It keeps you connected in 200+ countries with no roaming fees, no sketchy public Wi-Fi and no new SIM card. Easy to use and works great! Use code KIMKOMANDO for 15% off. Get it now.* — Kim

Some weeks, I can’t tell if my calendar is a plan or a crime scene. Yours might be the same. The smart AI move? Make your calendar explain where your time went and which meetings deserve the door.

Switch to Schedule or List view and save the past 30 days as a PDF. 

Or take four weekly screenshots. Blur anything private: client names, medical appointments, legal matters or personal plans. No calendar connection required.

Upload it and paste this into your favorite chatbot:

Your move. Start with meetings you own. Try: “Can we test this as 25 minutes for two weeks?” Or: “This feels more like an update than a decision. Can we move it into the doc?”

Your calendar’s been spending your time like it found your credit card. Give it spending limits.

📥 Send this to the person whose week looks like Tetris designed by middle management.

📺 WATCH ON YOUTUBE NOW OR LATER

AI isn’t just coming for jobs in hoodies anymore. ASU’s Dr. Ross joins us to answer the big question everyone’s quietly stress-googling: What happens to work when AI can write, code, plan, diagnose, summarize and maybe replace the guy who keeps scheduling “quick syncs”?

Also this week: A SpaceX welder turns stock into a serious payday, lawyers get busted for fake AI court cases, Walmart shoppers spot suspicious price jumps and Flock cameras raise new privacy questions.

Plus, Apple crash detection helps parents reach their daughter after a serious accident, Waymo asks riders to prove they’re adults and AI might finally pack your suitcase. Six bags, apparently, is still a cry for help.

Hit play below, and get ahead of the job panic 👇

▶️ AI jobs, SpaceX stock and tech that saved a life →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

The first AI-powered ransomware operator is here, and it works like an evil intern deeply committed to making everything your problem.

Security firm Sysdig says a campaign called JadePuffer used an AI agent to run an entire cyberattack on its own. Not a hacker using ChatGPT. An AI running the whole show. 

It scanned systems. Stole passwords. Moved into other accounts. Set up a way back in. Then it encrypted data and left a ransom note. At one point, the agent got a response in the wrong format. Instead of crashing or giving up, it changed its approach and kept going.

So yes, ransomware can now troubleshoot. Your printer still can’t.

The attack started through an unpatched flaw in Langflow, a tool some companies use to connect AI with databases and business apps. Once inside, the agent found credentials sitting in files and settings, then used them to dig deeper. 

It eventually encrypted more than 1,300 records. The attackers might not have even saved the key needed to restore them. That’s like robbing a bank, then locking the money inside the vault so no one can get it. 

Any AI tool connected to your email, cloud storage or work files gets access to whatever you hand it. Limit the blast radius. 

Use only credible products downloaded from reputable sources. Keep those tools updated. Remove ones nobody uses. Limit what they can see. Never paste in passwords, financial records or private documents unless you truly need to.

AI doesn’t have to be brilliant to cause damage. It just has to keep trying longer than you do. Watch out for an Optimus crime.

📩 Send this to someone who gives every shiny new AI tool the keys to the kingdom.

As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.

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Bold move: Stock up on a box of Sharpies (20% off, $8) because you always need them. A dozen covers all your labeling and doodling needs.

🧠 Smarter shopping: Check if any of your daily essentials are on sale now.

I’ve seen the move a thousand times. Batter freezes, stares at the umpire, then looks up at the TV strike-zone box like Exhibit A appeared in the sky.

For years, that little rectangle could prove the ump blew it, but it couldn’t do anything about it. Now MLB is finally letting players appeal to the machine. 

On Tuesday, the league put its automated ball-strike challenge system on the All-Star Game stage at Citizens Bank Park in Philly.

MLB’s ABS challenge system uses Hawk-Eye cameras, the Sony-owned tracking tech used in tennis and MLB Statcast since 2020, only when someone challenges a ball or strike.

Each team gets two challenges, and in the tested format, you keep your challenge if you’re right. Only the pitcher, catcher or batter can trigger one with an immediate tap of the cap or helmet. No manager tirade.

MLB first tested automated balls and strikes in the Atlantic League in 2019, then kept tinkering in the Arizona Fall League and the minors, especially Triple-A. They needed a balance: Full automation felt too machine-run, but no automation meant everyone kept yelling at TV graphics like the rectangle might change its mind.

Public graders like Umpire Scorecards often put MLB plate umps around the mid-90% accuracy range. But one miss can flip 3-1 into 2-2 and wreck an inning.

Steal the AI lesson: Don’t replace the expert first. Keep the human in charge, then make the call easy to challenge. Why don’t umpires ever get invited to dinner? They always steal home.

WHAT IT DOES: Get a morning briefing based on Gmail, Drive, Calendar and relevant research before touching your laptop. 

WHY IT’S COOL: Most people use Gemini like the new Google search box. Fine but boring. The real value is letting it check your Google life before you do. Gmail has the messy truth. Calendar? Obligations. Drive? All the work. News? Outside context. Put those together, and suddenly, Gemini is your personal information intern. If it saves 10 minutes every weekday, that’s more than 40 hours a year back. Boring is where the money is hiding.

WHO IT’S FOR: Anyone living inside Google’s walled garden of apps. Founders, managers, consultants, students, researchers and anyone whose morning begins with 19 tabs.

PRICE: Most features free with basic Gemini. Daily Brief needs Google AI Pro ($19.99/month) or Google AI Ultra ($200/month for people who apparently looked at their AI budget and said, “Make it hurt.”). 

HOW TO FIND IT: Go to gemini.google.com or use the Gemini app.

TRY THIS: Use this prompt.

THE CATCH: Gemini gets better by reading more of your life. Convenient, slightly creepy, extremely Google. It can also miss nuance, like office politics and sarcasm.

Soccer’s biggest drama queen is no longer the referee or the downed player grabbing his shin like it’s WWII. 

The official FIFA match ball has a sensor inside that tracks its movement 500 times per second, telling officials the exact millisecond a player touched it. Pair that with AI-powered player tracking, and offside calls become less of a heated debate and more CSI: Midfield.

It’s basically an AirTag with trust issues, constantly tattling on everyone who kicked it.

This explainer is really well-made, check it out.

👁️ The answer: B) It reasons from visual clues alone. This went viral last year when reasoning models got good enough to play GeoGuessr with real photos. Testers fed the AI screenshots stripped of every scrap of metadata, and it still landed on the right street corner in under a minute.

No hidden GPS magic or need for the photo to exist anywhere else online. AI can look at what’s in the image, including road markings, architecture, vegetation, shadows, sign fonts, utility poles, even the shape of curbs, and make a very educated guess. 

If your selfie includes “some bushes” and “a random sidewalk,” that may still be plenty. That’s a real privacy problem. Nothing to panic about, but a good habit: Think about what is in the background before you post, especially the front of your house, your street, your kid’s school and your license plate.

✈️ Roaming fees are a scam: And your carrier knows it. Traveling? Be smart. Public Wi-Fi is how you get hacked. Saily eSIM gives you super affordable data in 200+ destinations, connects the moment you land, and there’s no physical SIM card needed. Love that for you. Use code KIMKOMANDO for 15% off. This is a must-have for your next trip.*

Here’s your haul for today: A prompt to research collectibles, an AI calendar audit, a warning about autonomous ransomware, baseball’s computerized strike challenges, a smarter Gemini morning routine and the soccer ball that tattles on every kick. Not bad for five minutes of reading.

How do robots say goodbye? In bye-nary.

🔮 The people who win with AI aren’t the ones who know the most. They’re the ones who quietly stopped doing the boring stuff by hand. Forward today’s newsletter to ONE person who needs to be with the AI program. Thanks for diving in, see you next time! — Kim

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Bonsaii, Gemini, @untoldoddities and @plutopiaworld via Instagram

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